UK pirate cases dropped at Court

The lawyer taking hundreds of UK citizens to court for alleged illegal downloading has dramatically withdrawn from all cases. The patent court in London was currently scrutinising 26 cases brought by ACS: Law on behalf of its client MediaCAT. The law firm had sent thousands of letters to alleged file-sharers.

In a statement read to the court, solicitor Andrew Crossley said he had now ceased all such work. “I have ceased my work…I have been subject to criminal attack. My emails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats,” he said in the statement, read to the court by MediaCAT’s barrister Tim Ludbrook.

In September, ACS: Law was the victim of a cyber attack which exposed thousands of its emails online. These e-mails detailed all the people it was pursuing and the pornographic films they were accused of downloading for free.

The data breach is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Information Commissioner.